


Now It's Time to Set Fire to It All

by jackstanifold



Series: You Made it Through, You Finally Moved, That's Good for You [1]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Avian Tommyinnit, Blaze Jack Manifold, Child Abandonment, Elytran Phil Watson, God they, Jack Manifold-centric, Origins SMP, Winged TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:14:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29416218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jackstanifold/pseuds/jackstanifold
Summary: Jack was left to die when he was a child. The first person he'd seen in over a decade, and they offering an escape. Does he trust this weird angelic boy and his promises of family?(title from burn him down! by kitsch club)
Relationships: Jack Manifold & TommyInnit, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit & Phil Watson
Series: You Made it Through, You Finally Moved, That's Good for You [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2165289
Comments: 17
Kudos: 312





	Now It's Time to Set Fire to It All

**Author's Note:**

> going rabid over jack manifire.

_ Jack had been born in the overworld, in a tiny little shack, with rickety walls and a leaky ceiling. His parents didn’t have much money, and what little they did have was put into food and rent, so they were not prepared for a child, but they were excited nonetheless. A baby, to call their own, at last. _

_ He wasn’t supposed to be like this. _

_ A monster. _

_ Hybrid genetics were recessive, meaning they could go for generations without presenting themselves, and when they do, it’s rarely visible, usually just odd eyes, or tough skin. _

_ It’s rare for a child to be born more mob than human. _

_ Jack was small, even for an infant, and the blaze features (glowing orange eyes, sharp fingernails, dark red skin) made him look like some sort of hellspawn. He was, of course, but that didn’t mean he had to look like it. His parents kept him inside for the first six years of his life, locked in his room, not letting him see the outside once for fear of the neighbors catching him. _

_ Hybrids were persecuted, often being raised for fighting rings or gladiator matches. Even when born freemen, there was often a chance of them being taken. If a couple is found to have had a hybrid child, they would often be separated, or arrested. _

_ Jack did not have a very happy childhood. _

_ On his seventh birthday, his mother entered his room, sat at the foot of his bed, and told him he was going to get to leave the house. He was ecstatic, asking her questions, running around, trying to decide what to bring, what to wear. She watched silently, eyes sad, lips thin. _

_ He settled on bringing his blanket, which he’d creatively named Blankie, because he didn’t want Blankie to be lonely, or left behind. _

_ It was his best friend, after all. _

_ They walked for a long time. _

_ His mom held his hand the whole time, running her cool fingers over his feverishly hot skin, and he smiled up at her happily. _

_ His dad led them to a funny doorway in the woods, with a weird purple liquid pouring down in a curtain of light. He nodded at Jack’s mom, who nodded back, before crouching in front of Jack. _

_ “Hey, kiddo. We have a present for you, okay?” _

_ His eyes went wide, excited. “Really?! What is it?” _

_ “We can’t tell you, silly, but it’s on the other side of that portal, okay? You need to go through it, and when you do, you’ll see it, and it’ll be your best birthday ever. Okay?” _

_ He nervously looked between them, frowning gently. “What about you guys.” _

_ His mother smiled, but her eyes looked red, like she was going to start crying. “We’ll come right after. Okay?” _

_ “Okay!” He looked at the portal, his face settling into an excited smile as he held onto Blankie just a little tighter. _

_ He got to go outside today, and he turned seven, which was a very grown up number. It doesn’t matter what was on the other side, today had been the best day of his life, already. _

_ The portal burned a bit, in a weird, tingly way, but then he was through, and he looked around excitedly, expecting a cake, or balloons, or something, but all there was was a tiny piece of paper. _

_ He hesitated, before unfolding it. He couldn’t read very well, but he still squinted, mouthing the words, making the sounds. _

_ “Dear Jack. We’re sorry. You are so young, but you put us in so much danger, just by being here. We love you. Goodbye.” _

_ He hesitated, reading and rereading the words, before he turned to ask his parents what that meant. _

_ They weren’t there. _

_ The portal was empty. _

_ He ran over, looking around desperately, tears pricking his eyelids. _

_ Nothing.  _

_ They were gone, and he had no idea how to get home. _

The young man’s eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the dim orange light that filled his little shack easily, and he let out a sigh as he sat up, rubbing at his neck.

It was sore- one of the unfortunate side effects of dozing against the floor- but the only time he’d tried to make a bed, it’d ended with nightmares so bad he’d woken up with vomit spewing from his mouth, his whole body shaking, so he was left on the floor, leaning against the wall.

There was no time here, either, he slept when he felt like it, woke up when he had to. He didn’t know how long he’d been down here, or what day it was, or even if it was day at all.

He only knew he was thirsty, and his head hurt, and he needed to find food.

He walked outside, past a group of piglins ripping into a fallen strider, and headed straight to the lake.

The striders roaming the surface didn’t pause to look at him as he waded in, hands brushing the surface, eyes on the horizon. He could almost see the portal he’d gone through all those years ago, if he squinted. The dark frame was still empty, of course. Probably would be forever.

With a sigh, he leaned down, scooping some lava in his hand, and taking a sip. It tasted bitter, as it always did, but he couldn’t complain. 

There was no water in hell, after all.

His blaze rods had grown in years ago, and as he waded through the lava, they spun around him, creating a bit of a current, both in the lava and the smoke that billowed from his body.

He had changed a lot since he’d first arrived.

His arms were smoky, almost intangible, his hands dark and clawed. His eyes were huge, a glowing, fiery orange suited to see in the darkness of the nether. His teeth were sharper, needle-like. 

His clothes were handmade, made of the fibres he’d managed to strip from the trees, fireproof, lava proof, and, to an extent, tear proof. He liked them, the baggy brown pants, bound at the knees with leather bands with knee guards, to protect him when he fell while scaling the cliffs. The shirt was sleeveless, a dark blue color he had gotten from piglin traders. He’d also gotten a pair of sunglasses with mismatched lenses, which he wore while hunting, purely because they were fun.

He didn’t have a lot of fun otherwise.

He felt something nudge his shoulder and turned, finding himself face to face with a baby strider, who blinked at him dumbly.

“Hello, there.”

It snuffled, leaning forward to sniff his hair, its huge eyes curious.

“What, never seen a blaze-born ‘fore?” He asked, running a hand over its head as it wandered around him. It ruffled its fins a bit as he spoke, the tendrils at its sides shifting, reaching out. It butted him again, and he laughed.

Suddenly, it froze, eyes darting to the shore, and then it turned and ran, soon followed by the others in its herd.

He frowned, looking to the soul sand field that stretched the length of the shore, and froze. 

There was someone there.

A human.

He hesitated, looking at the lava, wondering if he could duck in, avoid the stranger completely, but…

No, he had the upper hand here. If he needed, he could kill them. And if they were friendly… this could be his chance to get out.

At the thought of escape, he felt his heart stutter, and he began to move.

They were tall, he noticed, with pale skin and messy white-blonde hair. They were facing the lake, but their eyes were glued to the phone in their hand, their eyebrows drawn.

As he got closer, he noticed some things.

They were young, probably around his age, if not younger, and they had something on their back, some form of backpack maybe? They didn’t look up until he reached the shore, until they heard his footsteps on the sand, and then their light blue irises finally met his, and they somehow paled more.

“Oh.”

He hadn’t heard someone else’s voice in a long long time, let alone this loud, and he flinched a bit. The other person blinked, opening their mouth, then closing it, before, suddenly, their eyes widened. “Holy shit, you were in the lake, weren’t you?!”

He hesitated, glancing back at the lake, before nodding slowly, carefully.

They somehow grinned even wider. “And you aren’t burnt? You’re fine?”

He didn’t like this. He knew humans were cruel, especially to hybrids. Their excitement in his invulnerability only meant danger. He stepped back a bit, hand moving to the gold sword that hung at his waist, and they frowned.

“Who’re you? What d’you want? Why’re you here?” He asked, quietly, and they froze, before suddenly laughing.

“You can talk! And you’re… Northerner? Always said everyone ‘bove Corvaria was hellspawns,” They looked so proud of the that he almost granted them a pity laugh, but then they suddenly realized what he said, and their face lit up again. “And, to answer your question, I am Tommy. Tommy Innit, the biggest man around!” At that, the thing on his back unfolded, and the blaze stepped back again.

Wings.

He was a hybrid.

An avian, if his memory served right, one of the rarer kinds, and a chicken avian at that. His wings weren’t very large, only coming in at around 10 feet total, but the pure white feathers shone in the dim light.

The feathers at the end were short, he noticed. Clipped, maybe, although he wasn’t sure. He’d never seen an avian before, it was possible they just looked like that.

He hesitated, before moving forward again, his hand moving out to touch one of the wings. Tommy didn’t stop him, just raising an eyebrow as he ran his claws over the bone white feathers. “You okay, man? ...Never seen wings before?”

He glanced at him, then, saw the pity in his eyes, and pulled back, spinning on his heel. He didn’t care. Tommy was going to leave. He was going to go home, and leave him and-

“Hey, man? D’you have food?” Tommy was behind him again, skipping along, hands shoved in his pockets. “Like, vegetables? I can’t eat meat. Makes me sick. Do you live around here?”

He hesitated, looking at the younger boy for a moment, before pulling a couple golden carrots from his bag. “Here.”

Tommy still didn’t leave after that, prattling on about some sort of lake, and a girl who lived in it, and his best friend, who would pick him up and throw him off of trees and into ravines, because he thought it was funny, and the Fragrance Man, who had brick scented fragrance, which really smelled like brick! and he didn’t really know what to say.

“Oh… Hey, what’s your name, man?” He didn’t respond at first, expecting the kid to keep talking, but Tommy just nudged his shoulder, curiously. “You hear me?”

He grunted, shoving the boy a bit. “Yeah, I heard ya.”

“So? What’s your name?”

He hesitated. “Jack. Jack Manifold.”

Tommy smiled. “Nice to meet you, Jack Manifold.”

“... Likewise, I s’pose.”

Tommy laughed. “Anyone ever tell you your accent’s funny, Jack Manifold?”

“Yeah,” Jack felt a grin tug at his lips. “Just the other week, a wither skeleton pulled me ‘side to say he thought my voice was absolutely mint.”

They had to stop moving then, because Tommy was sent into absolute hysterics, leaning against a tree, hugging his side.

Jack felt his face split into a grin as he watched the teen laugh. He hadn’t heard anyone laugh in a long time, let alone at his jokes. Travellers were rare, and when they did appear, they were rarely friendly.

“Holy shit…” Tommy sighed, wiping the tears from his cheeks, grinning brightly at him. “You have got to meet Wilbur.”

“Who?”

“My brother. He’s all pretentious- we’re from L’Manburg, us and our dad- and he thinks Northerners are impossible to understand. My dad’s a Northerner, actually, from Endlantis, and I learned to talk from him, but his accent isn't nearly as strong as yours… where’re you from?”

Jack shrugged. “Dunno, I’ve been here for my entire memory. Can’t remember anything from b’fore.”

Tommy hesitated. “Wait… alone?”

“Yeah,” Jack turned, trudging uphill to the little door built in the hill. “Can’t make a portal to get out, not from the inside. No one passin’ through has interest in helping, or even chattin’, mosta the time.”

“Oh,” Tommy’s voice was quiet, sad. “You… Am I the first person you’ve ever talked to?”

“No, not technically. I spoke to my parents and shit, back when I lived with ‘em. Talk to the striders, sometimes.”

Tommy blinked. “Really? That’s… that’s not a lot.”

“Talk to myself, if that helps,” Apparently, it didn’t, if the way Tommy fell silent meant anything. Jack hesitated, trying to think of anything he could say to make this better. “Hey, mate, it’s alright. I don’t… I mean, I used to it, y’know? I’m glad you dropped by, though.”

“Do you want to come back with me?”

Jack froze at that, blinking dumbly at him. “What?”

“Do you want to come back with me? To the overworld. You could live with my family and,” Jack felt tears prick his eyelids and stubbornly looked away, biting his lip. Tommy mistook that for anger, or maybe disgust and started to talk faster. “And we can build you a room, and it’ll be nice, and safe, and you won’t have to be alone anymore…”

Jack felt something in his heart break at that, and he looked back at Tommy, eyeing him carefully. “I…”

“Please?”

Jack hesitated. On one hand, he really didn’t want to leave. This was his home, with the striders, and the piglins, and the lava, and… he couldn’t even remember what the overworld was like, without the sulfur, and smoke, and ash. 

On the other hand… He wanted nothing more than the walk through the portal with tommy, taste the fresh air, see the sky that stretched up for miles, feel the wind on his face.

“I’ve been outside for roughly thirty minutes, my whole life…” He muttered, eyes fixed on the lava that bubbled, far below them. “Alright.”

The avian beamed, grabbing his arm, before stepping back with a hiss. “Holy shit, your skin…”

Jack looked down in surprise, before laughing. “Oh, yeah. It’s pretty warm, eh?”

“Burning, more like.”

He grinned, before nodding towards his house. “C’mon, I’ve gotta pack.”

There wasn’t much to bring, in the end. He had some food, and some armor, as well as some fire resistance potions, that Tommy was more interested in than him. He also hesitated, before grabbing Blankie. He had no real reason to take the tattered blue cloth, but… it was nice. Familiar. 

They headed for the portal nearly immediately after, Tommy looking around the nether with disgust. “Why does it smell like that?”

“‘S the gasses. Sulfur and methane. It’s pretty poisonous, most people can’t stand to be here for more’n a day.”

“And you’ve been here for years?”

“Guess I’m just built different.”

Tommy laughed nervously at that. “Oy, Jack, do you know… how long you’ve been down here, actually?”

“No,” Jack shrugged, squinting. He could see the portal now, the bubbling liquid that poured down it a beautiful shade of purple. “A decade, maybe more.”

“How old’re you?”

“... 17? 18, maybe. Prolly not older ‘n 20.”

“Oh… that’s pretty young.”

They were there, now, so Jack didn’t respond, just run a hand over the frame. He could still remember the feeling of paper in his hands, the hard black stone cutting up his hands as he clawed at it.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. You ready?”

Tommy nodded, then, to Jack’s surprise, reached out a hand. He hesitated, before taking it, willing his body heat to lower enough it wouldn’t burn, and nodded at the younger boy. 

They walked through together.

Jack had forgotten how bright it was.

It was bright in a different way then fire, though, somehow, and he had to shut his eyes for a moment.

Suddenly, something touched his hand and he let out a screech as his skin blistered. Suddenly, his whole body felt like it was burning, his flesh hissing and letting off steam. Tommy shouted something, stepping forward, and he lunged backwards, his back hitting something.

A tree?

The ground hurt to touch, and the air was full of pain, and the tree blistered his skin through his shirt, and he curled up on the ground, sobbing, trying to cover his head.

It took a long time, but eventually, he could breathe again. His skin still hurt, and the soft ground felt like acid, but…

Tommy sat beside him, wing spread over him, extended to its fullest, outstretched feathers trembling with moisture.

Rain.

It was raining.

Jack sat up a bit, still carefully staying under the wing, and hummed a bit. “Sorry.”

Tommy jolted, blinking at him. “For what? Burning? Jesus, what is it with hydrophobes and apologizing for getting wet? Fucking hell, Ranboo almost crying one time cause Dad told him he could stay in the barn ‘til the roof got fixed.”

Jack hesitated. “Who?”

“Enderman hybrid. You guy’s’ll get along, I think.”

They sat there in silence for a git, before Jack moved over, leaning against Tommy’s side. The younger boy hesitated before lowering his wing to drape it over the smaller, sighing in relief as his muscles relaxed.

The rain stopped after an hour or so, and Tommy stood, popping his back and letting out a huff. “Aight, c’mon, we gotta be getting back.”

Jack nodded and finally looked around. It was so… green. He literally hadn’t seen so much green in his life, it made him borderline nauseous to look at. It looked… fake. Like a drawing. The sky was…

Holy shit. 

He let out a quiet shriek as he looked up, crouching to the ground to sink his fingers into the damp ground, eyes fixed on the impossible blue expanse stretching above him. “Holy shit…”

It was so much. In the nether, when you looked up, there was a roof, only a mile or so up. As a kid, his bedroom ceiling had been the only thing he knew. When he had left, for however short a time that’d been, he had only looked up once, only saw a bit, too excited to really notice.

It was bigger than he’d expected, reaching up for miles and miles. He was almost afraid of it, afraid that if he looked up too long, he’d fall up, into space, and never stop falling.

Tommy laughed, but it sounded sad. “What, never seen the sky?”

Jack shook his head, reaching up, as if to touch it. “Is… Is it always this big?”

He knew the answer, he wasn’t dumb, but some part of him shrank when Tommy nodded. He glanced upward one last time before shaking himself and standing. “Alright. Let’s go.”

They walked in quiet for a while, through the woods, skirting a village carefully. 

“So, humans are still bad?” Jack asked, and Tommy’s eyes flew to him before returning to the path. 

“Yeah.”

Jack hummed, thinking for a moment before continuing. “So… is your dad human?”

“What? No.”

Jack froze, eyes wide. “Hang on, you… your dad’s a hybrid? Holy shit, what about your brother? The chances…”

Tommy’s face was twisted in confusion, but suddenly, a lightbulb went off and he laughed. “Oh! No, we’re not related by blood, Dad’s an elytrian. I’m avian, obviously. Wil’s a phantom.”

Jack hesitated. “What?”

“Uhh… Dad rescued me from a factory a couple years back… Wilbur got stuck outside during the day, we barely found him ‘fore he died. Then there’s others, like Niki, the mermaid, who lives in the lake near our house, or Tubbo, a shulker, who Phil found in the woods, or Ranboo, the enderman who I found eating our food, or the Fragrance Man, Schlatt, the arachnid, who… I actually don’t know where he came from… Anyway. We aren’t related by blood, but we’re all we’ve got. We’re our own family, and you’re part of the family now, too. Oh, we’re here!”

Jack was staring numbly at him through the whole rant, but now he looked up.

A beautiful little farmhouse sat in front of him, with white shutters and a dark blue roof. A lake sat behind it. If he looked carefully, he could see two figures at the shore, on in the water, the other on the land. Two other figures were in a little garden, and one...

“Dad!”

The man’s head snapped to the side, and he leaned forward, falling through the sky, his green robes whipping around him. At the last second, he extended his gauzy silver wings, and pulled out of his freefall. He looked around forty, with long blond hair pulled into a braid, strands of emeralds strung over his body, tied around his waist, braided in his hair. He looked like a dragonfly, or an angel, and Jack felt like puking when he turned his clear cerulean eyes upon him.

“Hallo, dad. This is Jack. He’ll be staying with us for a while, alright?”

The man tilted his head, thinking. “Alright. You’re a blaze-born, right? I don’t think I’ve seen one in a while, I can’t remember much about your kind… Do you have any dietary restrictions?”

Jack blinked, glancing between them dumbly. “I… No, I don’t-”

“Good,” Phil nodded, before glancing down at the lake and scowling. “Wilbur’s going to burn soon as he steps out… Hang on, let me go take care of this dumbass. Show Jack the house?”

“Yessir!” Tommy nudged Jack as his father swooped off. “Told you he wouldn’t mind.”

Jack blinked again, laughing incredulously. “Yeah… yeah, I… holy shit. I can stay here?”

“You can stay here!”

Jack smiled, looking around, at the green, at the blue, at all the colors he’d never seen in nature, and he felt himself tear up a bit, although he scrubbed his face and looked away.

“I don’t think… I don’t think I’m going to go back to the nether any time soon.”

**Author's Note:**

> aight boys, we're no longer calling this the origin smp it's being rebranded to powers smp
> 
> sorry for the lame ending.  
> might make this a series, lol  
> anyways, follow me on tumblr.com @manifoldland-empire


End file.
